Worst designed checkpoints
 

My vote goes to ATL "T" Terminal. 3 x-ray machines, 2 of which are always open and 2 lines with 2 BP checkers...but, tons of employees cutting the line, the line can get so long that it has to cross a main circulation aisle. But the worst part is that there is very little table space before the machines, and at least for one of them, the tables don't run all the way up to the machines, so you have to carry your stuff from table to machine...and if you have a few bags/bins, it holds things up.

Sounds like Heathrow, pick a terminal.

MCI

Just not set up for security in this day and age.

Not bad at the Frontier gates in C. Usually no more than two flights at a time from its gate cluster. And being at the checkpoint is pretty much equal to being at the gate counter.

I could see a problem at a set of gates where all are near boarding.

DCA, Terminal A.

DEN
Don't understand why with all the space they have the serpentine course ends at the ID checkers. Once past the ID farce, you're then dumped into the free for all line up to the Xray/WMD. On a couple of occasions I've had the ID checker hold me up until the flock of sheeple behind him/her clears a bit. Meanwhile the other ID checkers continue to let sheeple through, so the Xray coral never really opens up.

Followed by Pier C at BWI.

My vote: any checkpoint with a TSA or TSA-sanctioned presence.

I vote RDU Terminal A - wait in a long curvey line, just to get your BP checked, and then GO UP AN ESCALATOR, to get in another long curvey line, to get your BP checked again.

Then, there are 4 or 5 "lines" but they are vertically stacked (ie they are one behind the next), and the walkway is no more than 1-2 people wide, so you cant get to the back one.

And oh ya, no elite lines at all.

Any terminal that you have to clear security to leave the airport on arrival (ATL, for example).

I'm generally anti-death penalty, but sometimes crimes of design rise to such serious levels that you have no other reasonable choice of punishment.

My vote goes to SAT. One security checkpoint for the whole airport. Every time I'm there, the line extends to the other end of the building. This has to be one of the worst bottlenecks in US airports. But, I do give their TSA staff credit, because they do try and get you through quickly. Especially when in uniform.

Yup; and it's so detrimental to the carnival of idiocy there at MCI when flight crew enters the gate area from the "back" door by the check-in counters, bypassing security completely. :rolleyes: (This is done in full view of those of us from the not chosen classes who are stuck funding and participating as perps in the pageant of the morons that takes place at the check-point.)

Rarely more than a couple of minutes wait at CO or NW. And if there's a line at one of those airlines set of gates, chances are there's not at the other, and you can walk through from one gate set to the other.

Ideal.

Are you serious?? You have to be screened to leave??

Presume the poster is talking about ATL international arrivals. The only way to exit is in to Terminal E, which is a fully secured area.